Propagation
Beet power: New seed plant in Forlì
Forlì, the headquarters of KWS Italia, is our largest propagation station for sugarbeet seed worldwide. The new Forlì 3 pre-cleaning plant and warehouse boasts greater capacity and can handle bigger production volumes.
Our current location in Forlì, situated between Bologna and Rimini in the north Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, has existed since 1998. What began as a sugarbeet production site has developed into an increasingly important location for KWS in Europe in recent years – one where more than 60 percent of KWS’ global beet seed is produced. Forlì is also the main producer of basic rye seed and propagates a variety of other KWS crops. The logistics network for corn, sorghum, sunflower, soybean and oilseed rape for the Mediterranean market is also located there.
By expanding the site again, the Business Unit Sugarbeet is addressing the needs of the rapidly growing market and aims to secure KWS’ position as innovation leader in sugarbeet business: Thanks to the new pre-cleaning line, more than 500 tons of seed a day will be able to processed and stored.
How our propagation station has grown
Rapid rise in volumes
“Forlì 3 allows us to almost double our pre-cleaning activities,” states Andrea Babini, Processing and Logistics Manager at Forlì. “The volume of seed that reaches us every day has risen rapidly in recent years, and the diversity of varieties has also increased with the new KWS innovations CONVISO® SMART and CR+. Now we can take in the large quantities of seed after harvesting, pre-clean them and store them in the warehouses, which have been expanded in size by one hundred percent, without having to rely on external service providers.”
KWS Italia propagates seed annually over an area of around 4,500 hectares, of which 3,500 are devoted to sugarbeet seed. Thanks to its Mediterranean location and the associated climatic conditions, Emilia-Romagna is an excellent region for propagating seed. The many years of cooperation with specialized and experienced propagation companies in the region as well as the expert knowledge of our colleagues, coupled with the drive to keep on evolving further, ensure the location’s success.
“Our investments of just over 15 million euros in new facilities and storage areas in Italy over the past five years underline the importance of the propagation site and the great accomplishments of our teams on the ground,” says Albert Kockelmann, Head of Commercial Seed Propagation. “That ensures that we can continue to deliver our high-performance varieties to the market in top-notch quality.” |
Thanks to the expansion, external service providers are no longer needed, says Andrea Babini, Processing and Logistics Manager at Forlì.
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